Hi, I'm from Oregon. Doesn’t the Primary Election still have lower turnout than the General Election? Won’t this system eliminate choices before most voters have had a say?

Oregon’s current partisan primary election system excludes more than 30% of the electorate right out the gate, and gives minimal choice to the rest of voters since major party voters are only able to vote for candidates in their own parties. As a result, the primary election is appealing only to a subset of voters; the rest are turned away and turned off to the system as a whole. By offering maximum choice to all voters in an equal voting open primary, we expect significantly more participation in the whole political process. Moving the primary and general elections closer together could also have a beneficial effect on primary election turnout.